The immune system of an organism plays an important role in maintaining the health of the organism. There are a lot of immunocytes in an immune system. Under normal circumstances, immunocytes can serve appropriate immune functions, such as helping with the defense against external pathogens (e.g., bacteria, fungi, viruses, microorganisms, and various antigens) as well as degrading the aged and mal-functional cells or the abnormal cancer cells produced by gene mutation in the body. Therefore, an enhancement of immunity is helpful for organisms to stay healthy. The function of immunocytes decreases with aging, and this is one of the major causes of the decrease in immunity. Accordingly, if the aging of immunocytes can be delayed, the immunity can be effectively enhanced.
The dysfunction of immunocytes (also called immune system disorder), including hypoimmunity, allergic reaction, autoimmune reaction, etc., is harmful to the health of an organism. Specifically, a subject with hypoimmunity is susceptible to the infection of external pathogens, and a cancer may occur if the cancer cells in the subject are not cleaned promptly. An allergic reaction refers to the over-reaction of an immune system when it encounters foreign antigens, while an autoimmune reaction refers to an attack of immunocytes of the organisms on their own cells or organs. Therefore, if the immunity could be effectively enhanced and the allergic reaction and/or the autoimmune reaction could be effectively inhibited, the goal of improving the function of the immune system can be achieved to make a subject stay healthy.
In medicine, though it is known that appropriate exercise and diet as well as sufficient sleep can enhance the immunity of a subject, modern people are generally deficient in exercise and sleep and usually have a nutritional imbalanced diet. Therefore, it becomes impractical to achieve the goal of strengthening the immune system through exercise, sleep and diet. It is known that some medicines such as epinephrine, antihistamines, and steroids are effective in inhibiting allergic reactions and autoimmune reactions; however, the use of such medicines is usually accompanied by side effects such as palpitation, fremitus, and anxiety. Currently, other new therapeutic methods (such as desensitization therapy and biologics therapy) are available, though they are expensive and provide limited effects.
Given the above, there is still a need for a method that is effective in enhancing immunity, inhibiting allergic reaction, and/or inhibiting autoimmune reaction. Inventors of the present invention have found that the compound of formula (I) can effectively promote the activation of immunocytes, delay the aging of immunocytes, and inhibit the expressions of genes that induce allergic reaction and autoimmune reaction. Therefore, the use of the compound of formula (I) can achieve the effects of enhancing immunity, inhibiting allergic reaction, and/or inhibiting autoimmune reaction, while avoiding the side effects caused by medicines such as epinephrine, antihistamines, and steroids.